Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-08-12
The Pacific Coast.
The MOUNTAINS OF OREGoN-THE COLUMBIA
RIVER SCENERY.

Special Correspondence of the Journal.
Being native of Western Ohio, | remem-
Der when boy pride once felt in learning
from the remark of a gentleman who had
travelled in the Eastern part of the State,
that there were mountains in Ohio. | have
since heard the same intimation of mountains
in Ohio, but the sensations now felt after
such remarks are embarrassing. The noun
tains OF Oregon are so stupendous, go COM
plete in every feature appealing to the apprecia.
ton of natures most sublime physical efforts,
that when orce seen they dissolve the memory
OF even the Alleghanes or White Mountains
of the East into mere undulstions. No one
can form an idea of the perspective features
of mountains from geographical figures.
Such figures estimate from sea level, and
when they come to express the height of many
interior mountains, for instance the Rocky,
they are very deceptive, for the reason that
the general elevation makes up great por-
ton of the height given in the figures, while
nothing is visable but the abrupt rise above
the general level. The general elevation of
the Sierss, the Cascades and Coast the Range,
is not much above the sea level and their
height is all mountain, standing out to view.
The scenery is surprising in many of the
ranges of Oregon. For wondrous physical
features, dazzling the eye and thrilling the
nerve, the Cascades perhaps have no equal on
the globe. The canons that cleave in twain
the stupendous upheavals and build perpen-
dcular walls n thousand feet high, down
which plung and foam and dash the mother
waters from the snow capped mountains, are
awe inspiring. Neither the Alps nor Andes,
Etna nor Chimborazo can offer anything
more grand
Aside from the ranges are the peaks or
domes OF these in Oregon, there are the
Three Sisters, Mt Jefferson and Mt. Hood
Crossing over into Washington Territory we
have Mt Adams, Mt St. Hellens and Mt.
Rainier These eight magnificent peaks
named from South to North, and about 300
miles between extremes, are all visible from
a central point near Mt. Hood. Mt Wash
ington, n. H., celebrated for its eminence
and rugged surroundings is withsl only an
additional elevation within the range out of
which it rises. But take Mt Hood,
the grandest of all these mountains, whose
height is given at l6, 500 feet, rivaling Nj
Shasta of California, remembering that the
general elevation is not much above the sea
level, and as one stands at its base it lifts its
| head into the skies three miles Whether
one views it from the immediate vicinity, or
is so miles away, the sight is lndescrbsbly
grand. Looking up from its base in clear
sky to its summit one, perhaps, is enabled to
get at glance, view en-
brsclng the largest distinct, physi.
rs al ohtprt the Garth and
stands beside this mighty structure that is
unncumbered and unembarrassed by
any surroundings, and thinks of
the ARCHITECTURAL work of man, his
vanity freezes into chill and he would pre-
sent the ant hills of Africa as BETTING a
monumental genius of the architect rather
than recur even to the pyramids of Egypt.
! Up, up, up, from stretch TO stretch, from the
! limit OF Vegetation to where nestle the clouds,
thence on and on to the regions OF eternal
snow, where hangs the spotless crown of Mt.
| Hoods shivering head, ones vision bounds
until the sight intoxicstes aud in the moments
of delirium one surrenders his own identity
and feels unworthy personality.
But as soon as one breaks loose from the
spell he is seized with an unquenching am
bitiou as vain as it is infatusting, to climb to
the summit of Mt. Hood and perhaps shake
hands with the man in the moon. This can be
done and often has been done to the same
degree that perpetual motion has been in
vented-just little lacking. At the greatest
height reached, the atmosphere is so rare as
TO forbid sufficient exercise to overcome the
cold and undergo the fatigue OF climbing.
There is not sufficient heat force to drive the
blood properly and it flows from the mouth
and nose.
SO Oregon has her peerless Mt. Hood,
California, her Shssts, Washington Territory
her Rainier, Colorado, Pixies Peak, Wyom.
ing, a Fremont, New Hampshire, her Mt.
Washington, and Ohio-well, Ohio has some
Uery fine Indian mounds.
An all day ride on the Columbia river
from Portland to the Dalles, is one of the
most pleasing excursions privileges afforded